“We are thrilled with the positive response from LCME,” says Sherine Gabriel, M.D., M.Sc., (retiring) dean of Mayo Medical School and William J. and Charles H. Mayo Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. “This signifies an important step in our transformation to a national medical school and our ability to deliver extraordinary medical education and highly diverse clinical experiences to our students across all campuses.”

Originally established in Rochester, Minnesota, in 1972, Mayo Medical School is considered one of the most highly competitive medical schools in the country for admittance. Averaging over 4,700 applications per year, Mayo Medical School traditionally accepts only 50 students per enrolling class. With the opening of the Arizona campus in 2017, this will increase to 50 additional students per year. The expansion of the medical school is a natural next step in its mission to train highly skilled physicians. Notably, Mayo Medical School students routinely match to top residency programs across the country, and 80 percent — more than twice the national average — publish research manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. Careful planning will maintain another important feature of the school — its high faculty-to-single student ratio.

The December 2014 plan submitted to the Liaison Committee on Medical Education carefully outlined the school’s vision to create a national medical school and a new standard in medical education. Along with the current four-year campus at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and creating a four-year campus at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, students will have the opportunity to complete their third- and fourth-years at the campus at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Mayo Medical School is also developing state-of-the-art online learning modules and has worked with Arizona State University to jointly develop and incorporate the science of health care delivery across the medical school’s curriculum at each campus.

“Mayo Medical School students will be some of the first in the nation to receive a certificate in the science of health care delivery,” notes Michele Halyard, M.D., Suzanne Hanson Poole Vice Dean and incoming interim dean of the school. “Not only are we training our students to be excellent physicians and scientists, we are also equipping them with the tools to transform America’s ailing health care system.”

Mayo Medical School’s goal to transform medical education reaches far beyond its own doors. In 2013, the school was one of only 11 medical schools across the nation selected for the American Medical Association’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative. This consortium of educational innovators is working with the AMA to pioneer and collectively accelerate cutting-edge changes in medical education.